Student Notes from Latin Europe (1400–1750)

The first comprehensive guide dedicated solely to research on Latin-European early modern student notes.

The many preserved collections of student notes from the early modern period – ranging from neatly maintained notebooks to barely legible scribbles crammed between lines of printed text – hold considerable but largely untapped potential as an historical source. At the same time, the analysis of these notes poses significant challenges for scholars. This book aims to be a concise and accessible companion for scholars interested in engaging with this young and burgeoning research field. Written by a diverse group of specialists from across Europe and the US, it explores the various technical and practical aspects involved in reading, interpreting, and editing student notes, while also demonstrating how these sources can enrich various areas of historical research. Indeed, student notes reveal that early modern lecture halls were often more dynamic, diverse, and creative than we might have expected.

Introduction
Raf Van Rooy and Maxime Maleux, on behalf of the editors
1. Education in early modern Latin Europe: A scene from Leuven
2. Structure of the research companion
3. Why Leuven?
Acknowledgments
Notes
References

Part I—The Basics of Student Notes Research

Chapter 1—The Making of Student Notes
Ann M. Blair
1. The survival of student notes
2. The forms of student notes
3. Methods of note-taking in the classroom
4. What can and cannot be learned from student notes
Notes
Suggestions for further reading
References

Chapter 2—Getting a First Grasp of Student Notes
Raf Van Rooy and Xander Feys
1. Introduction
2. Referentiality, fragmentariness, and provenance
3. Paleography
4. Drawing up a typology for student notes
4.1. Form
4.2. Structure
4.3. Contents
5. Conclusion
6. Exercise
Notes
References
Transcription and model solution

Chapter 3—The Materiality of the Student Notebook
Jarrik Van Der Biest
1. Introduction
2. From paper mill to preservation
3. Analysis
3.1. Quire structure
3.2. Distribution of watermarks
3.3. Dates
3.4. Textual divisions, codicological blocks
Notes
Thematic bibliography

Chapter 4—Book History: The Basics with Two Case Studies
Natasha Constantinidou, Dieter Cammaerts, and Violet Soen
1. Introduction
2. An increasingly interdisciplinary field
3. Production and distribution of printed books
4. From production to consumption: An inquiry into material objects
5. Analyzing printed text editions: Aspects of book history in practice
6. Conclusions
Notes
Thematic bibliography

Chapter 5—How to Make Student Notes Accessible
Raf Van Rooy
1. Introduction
2. Choose wisely from the start
2.1. Diplomatic and semi-diplomatic transcription
2.2. XML
2.3. The act of transcribing: Benefits and tools
2.4. Good practices
3. Conclusion
Notes
References

Student Notes Toolkit

Part II—The Potential of Student Notes Research

Chapter 6—History of Education
Daniel Gehrt and Michael Stolberg
1. Introduction
2. The diversity and flexibility of basic academic education
3. Training for professional practice: Medical students’ notebooks
4. Conclusion
Notes
References

Chapter 7—Intellectual History
Lorenz Demey, Marc Laureys, Maxime Maleux, and Andy Peetermans
1. Introduction
2. Revolutionary rhetoric versus didactic continuity: Juvenal in Bologna
3. Official policies versus didactic non-conformism: The university of Leuven and the Wegestreit
4. Textbook canonicity versus didactic creativity
4.1. Aristotelian diagrams beyond the square of opposition
4.2. Hebrew in Leuven and Paris
5. Conclusion
Notes
References

Chapter 8—Book History
Xander Feys and Raf Van Rooy
1. Introduction
2. Book circulation
3. Interleaving for intermezzi
4. Student practices in handling books and their flaws
5. Pedagogic pragmatism
6. Conclusion
Notes
References

Chapter 9—Visual History
Alicja Bielak and Gwendoline de Mûelenaere
1. Introduction
2. Visual elements in notebooks
2.1. Heterogeneous visual languages
2.2. Diagrams
2.3. The materiality of the image
3. Classification of images in student notebooks
3.1. Traditional university iconography
3.2. Scientific drawings and engravings
3.3. Symbolic language
4. Emblems as didactic and mnemonic devices
4.1. Scientific emblemata
4.2. Recuperation of emblematic devices
4.3. Emblems as memory aids
5. Conclusion
Notes
References

Chapter 10—History of Orality
Tomás Antonio Valle and Raf Van Rooy
1. Introduction
2. Conversational culture at Wittenberg university c. 1550
3. The oral/aural challenges of teaching and learning
4. Conclusion
Notes
References
Further reading

Chapter 11—Socio-Cultural History
Maximilian Schuh, Xander Feys, and Raf Van Rooy
1. Introduction
2. Case study 1: The arts faculties at Uppsala and Ingolstadt
2.1. Uppsala
2.2. Ingolstadt
3. Case study 2: Triangular teaching in Milan in about 1465
4. Case study 3: Aeneid 12 and the Turkish threat
5. Conclusion
Notes
References
Multilingual Glossary

Xander Feys

Xander Feys is a postdoctoral researcher at KU Leuven, specializing in humanist pedagogical praxis, university and book history in the Southern Low Countries, and the early modern reception of Vergil and Homer.

Maxime Maleux

Maxime Maleux earned his PhD in linguistics with a dissertation on the teaching of Hebrew in the early modern Low Countries and currently works as a postdoctoral researcher at KU Leuven.

Andy Peetermans

Andy Peetermans is a research associate at KU Leuven, interested in early modern grammar writing and its didactic dimensions.

Raf Van Rooy

Raf Van Rooy is assistant professor of Latin Literature at KU Leuven, working on early modern literary multilingualism, with a specific interest in exchanges between Latin and Greek.

Alicja Bielak

Ann Blair

Dieter Cammaerts

Natasha Constantinidou

Gwendoline de Mûelenaere

Lorenz Demey

Daniel Gehrt

Marc Laureys

Marc Laureys is Professor of Medieval Latin and Neo-Latin Philology as well as Founding Director of the Centre for the Classical Tradition at the University of Bonn.

Maximilian Schuh

Violet Soen

Violet Soen is als historica verbonden aan de Onderzoeksgroep Nieuwe Tijd, KU Leuven. Ze doet onderzoek naar religie in de grensgebieden van de Spaans-Habsburgse wereld, en bestudeert de wisselwerking tussen godsdienstoorlogen en -vredes in de zestiende en zeventiende eeuw.

Michael Stolberg

Tomás Valle

Jarrik Van Der Biest

Xander Feys

Maxime Maleux

Andy Peetermans

Raf Van Rooy